Like a Boss: How being consistent can improve your blog + biz with Fiona Tye

Every day, our Blog Squad beauties are working hard and achieving great things for their blogs and online businesses and we love to shout about how amazing they are.

Once a month, we pick one member from Blog Squad who has been kicking a** all month and they share their story and awesome advice with you!

This month’s #NerdBoss has been smashing her goals, left, right and centre. Fiona Tye has been working really hard on getting her first course, Shape Up Your Style, ready. Shape Up Your Style is a step by step system to creating a wardrobe that works for you and your body shape!

Fiona is empowering women to feel confident in their own skin and she is here to tell us all about her online biz, how she got started and why consistency is key to running any blog or online business.

I think it’s really sad that women don’t feel great about their bodies. Instead of seeing the positives, they tend to focus on the negatives.

That’s what my business is about – to show women that no matter what their body shapes are they can look and feel great!

It’s where I feel the magazines kind of drop off – they tell us what’s in and what the trends are but don’t really tackle ‘how do I apply that trend to my shape’ issue.

That’s where I hope I can take over and show women how to apply styles to them; so that they feel confident and not awkward in their chosen outfits.

What’s your story – what or who inspired you to start your business?

So what’s an ex High School English Teacher and Marketing Manager have in common with blogging? Not a lot especially since when I left work to have my baby, the internet was very very new…..ROFL! (giving away my age here a bit)

But in order to understand how I ended up there, you have to know a little about my backstory. I have always been very sensitive about my appearance and suffered terribly from a lack of self-confidence. I’m sure that you know what I’m talking about – always wanted to be taller or thinner.

Lack of self-confidence meant I was really very shy. In fact, I hardly spoke until I turned 17 (that’s another long, long story). My step mum used to pick on my body shape – I’d get comments like, “you’ll never be thin because you have big thighs” etc.. Not the thing you’d say to a teen and unfortunately I listened.

So I think to compensate, I used to dress quite conservatively and hide my shape. I just was never very comfortable in my own skin.

That just started a vicious cycle, being uncomfortable meant that I was also very indecisive, I couldn’t pick out an outfit to save myself. I’d go shopping and never ever buy anything.

It wasn’t until my late 30’s early 40’s that my husband got me to go to a stylist – so I went to 2.

That was when everything clicked for me. And that’s when my confidence improved – once I knew how to dress, how to choose clothes for me, I became so much more confident. In fact – my friends noticed so did my brother and my hubby.

I know that saying this might sound a little shallow or vain…because shouldn’t we all be looking at inner beauty?

What I know is this, if you don’t feel good on the inside, you’re not going to look happy on the outside. For me, the 2 are really closely entwined.

That’s when I got to thinking that if I felt like that, other women had to too. I’d had such a positive experience with my 2nd stylist and was looking to do some form of work around my kids, that a positive step forward for me was to combine my teaching with personal styling.

But I wanted to create a site for everyday women.

To me, personal styling isn’t just for a special occasion, it’s an everyday event. I think it’s just as important to feel good in everyday clothing as it is to feel special when you get all dressed up.

Because it’s the feeling good every day that builds up your confidence.

I’d done so much research on body shapes when studying that I found there was a gap in magazines, a gap on the internet between online shopping and how to dress. How do you know if something is going to suit you when you buy it online?

That’s when my husband and I came up with the idea of “The Dressing Room”, personal styling program (thank you for helping me clarify that Kate!), you choose your body shape, your avatar comes up or you can upload your own pic and all the clothing styles that suit your shape appear with links to where you can buy them.

You get to ‘try’ them on to see whether you like it or could imagine yourself wearing it. My blog is to support that program. To help women understand that no matter their shape or age they can look good and feel good about themselves.

If we don’t get women feeling good about themselves how are they going to help their sons and daughters feel good? But, I didn’t have that influence growing up..I missed out, but I didn’t want other women to miss out too!

I don’t really have a person who inspired me to do this. I found the lack of knowledge more of my driving force.

Do you remember having a sort of ‘oh damn, I really can do this’ moment? What was it??

I actually had to meet with a business coach who specialised in ‘what’s holding you back in your business?’ I just wasn’t getting anywhere. This was about 2 years ago. And it came down to me being scared and putting myself out there.

It took me about 2 years to come out of the closet and tell people that I’d actually started a business. That for me was the turning point – when I said to my friends, “I’ve started my own business”.

Yep, they thought I was crazy and they still think that, that I just sit all day and play on the computer but I don’t care anymore.

I have a vision and I’m going for it!

What is the best advice you have ever received?

Be consistent!! And, put it out there – it doesn’t have to be perfect, sell what you’ve got. Then work on improving it.

What do you find to be your biggest challenge, and what’s something that has really worked for you?

I am a bit of a control freak…so letting go and letting others help me. Like hiring a freelancer to help with the workload a little.

What is the thing you are most proud of about your blog or online business?

I feel really proud when I get messages from ladies just wanting to chat about their bodies and how they feel. I’ve had some great conversations with women from all over the world who feel embarrassed about their bodies.

It makes me feel so good when they say, “you’ve made me feel good about myself” or even, friends saying, oh, “I’m following your post on jeans” little things like that.

I’m not an easy sell…I’d spent so much money on courses, mentoring but wasn’t getting anywhere because it wasn’t organised. I needed an organised structured approach and a community that was encouraging. I’d join other communities and some were really really rude.

I just felt that Blog Squad had the structure which I and my business needed and to be perfectly honest, I have always admired Kate. She’d made a big splash in both of her businesses and I looked up to her for that and thought that I could benefit from her experience and help!

What has been your biggest accomplishment since joining the Blog Squad?

Getting more organised. Everything gets jumbled in my brain. Having the structured plans helps me to sit down and create something that I am proud of.

How would you describe the Blog Squad community to a friend?
As an encouraging, warm environment and the best blogging community, I have ever been part of.

Moving forward, what’s next for you and your biz?

I’d love to create body shape magazines and add an internal/external anti-ageing course (for women in their 40’s and 50’s) to my other courses and re-work my personal styling program.

But first things first, get my courses launched properly and then tackle the rest.

Want to know how to be consistent with your blog + biz? Why not sign up to the Blog Squad waitlist?